Man-cations

Inspired by the book, Raising a Modern Day Knight by Robert Lewis, Scott has decided to take each of the boys, individually, on an outing once a year. The main thrust of the book is how fathers, specifically, can raise their sons to be men, and this is one of the suggestions offered in the book as a way to spend time together, and as the boys get older, teach them how God expects them to live. So, off the boys went!


Calvin went with Scott two weeks ago to the coast and stayed at a place called the Avila Hot Springs Resort, which is a total dive, for any of you locals who may be wondering! We don't have any pictures to share of Calvin's outing with his daddy, but I'll share one story from their trip. Before leaving, Scott showed Calvin pictures of the aforementioned "resort" and the 2 water slides they have going into the pool. Our 3-year-old could hardly contain his excitement at the thought of those water slides. So, after arriving and setting up their tent Friday night, they headed over to the water slides. There were two high-school age boys having fun flying down the slides, and Calvin eagerly raced up the stairs, only to find out that the two boys were lifeguards and were enjoying doing their own thing after hours. They found out, upon asking, that the water slides opened up again at 11:00 the next morning, so Calvin and Scott went back to their tent site to wait patiently until then.

The next morning, our little early riser was up at the crack of dawn, so Scott and Calvin went to the beach, went on a bike ride, and walked on the pier until the much-anticipated time when the water slides would open up again. They got back to the campground at 10:45 and went to the pool to wait... finally at 11:15 they opened for business, and Calvin again eagerly raced to the top of the stairs. However, when he got to the top this time, the lifeguard informed Calvin that he was too little and wouldn't be able to go down the slides. Calvin had to march down the steps again, this time past all the bigger kids who were lining up to have fun, with his eyes welling up with tears and a look of pure disappointment on his face. Scott said he was absolutely heart-broken for Calvin; he tried to reason with the lifeguard, telling him Calvin that could swim, that he would wear his life-jacket, and that he (Scott) would be at the bottom to catch Calvin, but the lifeguard wouldn't budge.

Although Calvin didn't get to go down the water slides (which was the main thing Calvin was looking forward to on his "man-cation" with Daddy), they still had a great trip. Scott and I decided that perhaps learning how to deal with disappointments is actually a good life lesson for Calvin to begin learning, even at the tender age of 3.

So, on to Daniel's trip with Scott. Nothing as momentous to report... they went up to Sequoia NP and camped near Hume Lake. They left this past Saturday morning, set up camp, went to Hume Lake to bike and swim, but really, all Daniel wanted to do was make a bonfire (yes, he's still completely obsessed with fire!). So, at 3:00 in the afternoon they started the fire and kept it going until bedtime... and then started it up again first thing the next morning. Daniel loved his trip! And I am so thankful that our kids have a such a loving dad who believes it's so important to spend time with his boys and teach them what it means to be a godly man... we are all incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful dad/husband!

Does it get any better than this?!